A story about discovering beauty

Further Reading

One of the aims of sharing Dive Down is to signpost other deep sea divers to some of the beautiful, helpful and inspiring people and organisations out there. The seals appear in the story at the point that Sam the illustrator started to find help in books and online.

There is a short list of some of resources that inspired the story in the back of Dive Down. They are below with links, along with ideas and suggestions that other people have found on their journeys.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
I read this a few years ago, and it’s brilliant. An intense, beautiful and philosophical book that on one level is about a man taking his son on a road trip on a motorbike, with lots of other levels analysing how we think about the world, and what it means to be ‘sane.’

Mind
A UK-based charity offering support for anyone struggling with mental health issues, including links to local services.

Find a Counsellor
A UK based website helping match you to therapists and counsellors in your area.

To Write Love on Her Arms
A US based charity offering support and inspiration for people struggling with addiction, depression, self-injury and thoughts of suicide. I have one of their Re-blog t shirts and wear it a lot to feel inspired. It says:

“You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living, breathing screaming invitation to believe better things.”

5 Rhythms Dance
A therapeutic approach to dance as a moving form of meditation, founded by Gabrielle Roth. I pretty much hated PE and sports at school, but if there had been a 5 Rhythms class I would have loved it! It’s really liberating, and can be quite silly – there is no right or wrong; you just let your body take over and go where the music takes you. I thoroughly recommend trying it. I’ve been dancing with the wonderful Southampton 5 rhythms tribe.

Charlie Lock’s Skin Care
My skin went a bit bonkers due to stress – and the wonderful Julie Raines of Charlie Lock’s helped heal it. She helped me to understand the effect of all those stress hormones on my skin, and taught me that looking after your skin isn’t vanity; it’s self care. They have a lovely spa just outside Winchester in the UK, and are launching a gorgeous range of organic skin products.

Blakeney Point in Norfolk is an amazing spot where you can take boat trips to see both seal species in their natural habitat.

The Selkies or SealPeople are found in Celtic mythology. They can switch between human and seal form – often beautiful humans with large brown eyes, sometimes taking revenge on people who hurt seals. Stories sometimes also feature a human man falling in love with a Selkie woman and stealing her seal skin so that she cannot return to the sea. You can read more in Land of the Seal People by Duncan Williamson.

Smiling Mind App
Recommended by a psychiatric nurse with children and adolescents, an app for meditation and mindfulness.

HeadspaceA good introduction to mindfulness with a website and app available. The App includes little 10 minute mindfulness practices with a very practical approach to meditation.

Waterlog by Richard Deakin and Waterlog Reswum on Facebook
A friend is passionate about wild swimming friend uses his time in the water as a mindfulness tool – he swims in all kinds of wonderful places, and loves this book and FB page.